


Coffee With Marriage Benefits

by wynnebat



Series: The Benefits of Coffee [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Auror Harry Potter, Fluff, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Politician Tom Riddle, Timeline Mashup
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-20
Updated: 2018-01-20
Packaged: 2019-03-07 00:16:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,235
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13422651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wynnebat/pseuds/wynnebat
Summary: In which Tom is yet again stuck serving coffee, but it comes with better benefits.





	Coffee With Marriage Benefits

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a prompt by @heliophobic over on tumblr.

“We have to stop meeting like this,” says the next customer in line. When the family of four moves out of the way to find a table, Tom sees his boyfriend of nearly a year standing across the counter. It’s only the third time that they’ve met like this since he and Harry had gotten together, but to Tom it’s definitely three times too many.

Still, Tom’s lips curl up helplessly at the sight of Harry, who’s dressed in casual robes and willingly visiting the ministry on one of his days off. “I thought you were with your Gryffindors.”

“Hermione’s still feeling sick and Ron’s paranoid about me also catching doxy pox since I didn’t get it as a kid, so I’ve been kicked out early,” Harry says, leaning in to give Tom a kiss.

It’s short, too short, but they’re in public and Tom has to at least pretend to be professional while he’s covering for Avery again. “If you’ve caught it, I’ll string you up by your balls in the living room.” Tom pecks him on the lips again to soften the point, even though he’s completely serious. “I have too much to do to be sick for a week. Hermione must be going mad.”

“She is,” Harry says, rolling his eyes. “I haven’t seen her this bad since our NEWTs week. But I didn’t go within three feet of her, I promise. Not a hint of skin to skin contact.”

While Harry conjures another stool behind the counter, Tom works the coffee contraption until it pops out a cup of perfectly blended coffee. He’s come a long way since his days of being unable to and uninterested in knowing how to make a proper cup of coffee. Harry carries the entirety of the blame for that, but Tom is unfortunately too sentimental to hate him for it. Even the smell has become pleasant after smelling it just about every morning since they moved in together. When he passes the coffee over to Harry, he says, “Try one of the blueberry scones. They’re not terrible, for one of Avery’s recipes.” Tom has already had three tonight.

“Mmm,” Harry says as he bites into one. “I was surprised to not see you at home, but I saw your note. Avery again?”

“Who else?” Tom mutters. He slumps back down onto his own stool, his knees bumping against Harry’s in the small space between them. “His kid had some kind of emergency and the teenagers he employs are either busy or can’t work this late, so it’s up to me to suffer.”

Harry pats Tom’s knee. “There, there. You’ve survived this far.”

“I still have an hour left,” Tom sighs. “I would’ve told him no, but it’s either someone fills in for him for the rest of his shift or he’s forced to miss tomorrow’s Wizengamot meeting.”

“Which is the most important one of the year,” Harry confirms with an air of someone who is up to date on these kinds of things only because the person he loves cares about them. “You need his vote for the magical restrictions bill, right?”

“I do,” Tom says, rubbing his forehead. “I have the rest of my—”

“Henchmen.”

“—associates, but I need every vote I can get, especially from the older families.” Not for the first time, Tom complains, “It’s utterly ridiculous how biased the wizarding legal system toward votes from old pureblood lines.” It burns, the fact that Tom’s ancestors sold off their seats decades ago, but he’s used to the burn. Now, the only way he can join the Wizengamot is through creating a line of his own—and Tom isn’t interest in children quite yet, if ever—or joining an established line. Until then, he can only manipulate from the sidelines. It isn’t as though his job as an Unspeakable isn’t rewarding, but Tom has always been one to want more. “I would marry you in an instant for the Wizengamot seats that you don’t even care about. The whole system needs an overhaul, but things move slowly here. It’s utter insanity.”

He reaches to steal another blueberry scone from under the glass counter and in his irritation nearly misses Harry’s words of, “I wouldn’t mind, you know.”

At first, Tom thinks Harry is saying he doesn’t mind the ministry’s convoluted legal system, which is ridiculous. He and Harry have had a multitude of scathing conversations on the topic. And then he realizes that Harry had replied to Tom’s offhand words. Tom hadn’t been serious at all, but Harry… “Excuse me?”

“You make me the most amazing coffee. I can’t possibly let you go and marry someone else one day.” For all that Harry is just sitting next to him and sipping his coffee after his world-altering words, his eyes have glint of sincerity.

“Be serious,” Tom says, feeling utterly bemused. “You wouldn’t let me use you just for politics. That’s not like you at all.”

Harry sets his coffee down on the counter and brushes his hand across the side of Tom’s jaw. It takes him a moment to gather his thoughts in that way he always does when he has something important to say, and Tom is halfway to giving in and kissing him just because of that, but he wants to hear Harry’s words. “It’s not like you, either. You wouldn’t bind yourself to someone for the rest of your life just for a Wizengamot seat. You’d only do it because you wanted to. And me—I want to.”

For all that Tom is an excellent orator, he’s always found emotions to be so difficult to describe with words. Especially the ones he has for Harry, ones he’s never had for another person in his life. “I could be planning to take the seat in the divorce.”

“I’ll take my chances,” Harry replies, but even though their faces are so close, he doesn’t kiss Tom. He’s waiting.

And Tom’s never been one for waiting. Perhaps it’s too soon, but he’s never been able to regret becoming close to Harry. They’ve been each other’s through thick and thin, though fights and laughter and conflicting schedules and Harry coming come one day with a crup puppy. “I do want to,” Tom says, resting his forehead against Harry’s. Tom doesn’t say the words often, but he says them now. “I love you, you know.”

“I’ve had an inkling, yes,” Harry replies, grinning. “I love you too, even if you’re such a politician.”

“You’re an _auror_ ,” Tom says, wrinkling his nose. Harry has no room to talk, honestly. “And I’m proposing to you properly later. There will be wine and bent knees and a dozen of our closest associates. I won’t have our proposal story be here.”

“Avery would get a kick out of it.”

“That’s exactly why. He’s insufferable enough,” Tom mutters, but he can’t force any irritation to rise up. There’s just happiness as he looks into the green eyes of the man he can one day call his husband. The thought of it is nice. Really nice, actually. “We can’t tell him about this conversation at all.”

Harry huffs a little laugh, but he obviously finds kissing Tom to be more important than continuing to think about Avery. Tom is of a single mind.

When they finally break apart, it’s only because of the insistent coughing of a customer across the counter.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> I'm also on tumblr as @[crownwithoutstones](https://crownwithoutstones.tumblr.com/).


End file.
